National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Powerful Pacific Storm to Continue Impacting Northern California; Heavy Snow in the Appalachians and Portions of the Northeast

A strong atmospheric river will continue to impact northern California with heavy rain and life-threatening flooding through Friday. Unsettled weather is expected across much of the Northeast and Great Lakes over the next few days, including the likelihood of heavy snow in the central Appalachians and higher elevations of northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York. Read More >

ENSO Indices

 

ENSO Regions

 

Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)
standardized anomaly of the mean sea level pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin

  • traditional ENSO index

  • correlates strongly with SST anomaly indices


NOAA Oceanic Niño Index (ONI)
sea surface temperature anomaly index for Niño 3.4 (5°N to 5°S, 170°W to 120°W)

  • onset of El Niño declared when Niño 3.4 anomaly exceeds +0.5°C for 3-month period

  • to be "full-fledged" El Niño (or La Niña), onset conditions must be met for 5 consecutive 3-month periods


Japanese Meteorological Agency ENSO Index (JMA)
sea surface temperature anomaly index for Niño 3 (4°N to 4°S, 150°W to 90°W)

  • less noisy than traditional SOI and more vigorous than NOAA ONI

  • anomalies must exceed 0.5°C for 6 consecutive 5-month periods


Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI)
weighted anomaly average of 6 meteorological variables in the tropical Pacific

  • sea surface temperature

  • sea level pressure

  • surface air temperature

  • components of surface wind

    • zonal component

    • meridional component

  • total cloudiness fraction of the sky